1. Field of the Art
This invention relates to a method for producing molded fish-paste products which are colored on only their surfaces through the so-called Maillard reaction. The invention further relates to surface-colored molded fish-paste products thus produced, particularly those packaged and sterilized in sealed containers.
Hitherto, the general methods for browning fish-paste products have comprised adding a color-forming agent such as a sugar or an amino acid to ground fish meat (seasoned if desired), molding the material into desired shapes such as a cylinder, a thick sheet, a bar of elliptical cross section, or a ball, and then heating the molded material by oil heating, burner heating, high-frequency heating or the like, whereby the surfaces of the products are colored by utilization of the Maillard reaction.
There have been several problems, however, in the conventional coloring methods. One of the problems is that the amount of color-forming agents to be added in order to realize color development is often restricted with respect to the resulting taste, because the sugar or amino acid used as the color-forming agent is also a seasoning agent.
The other problems generally observed in the conventional coloring methods are related to heating. One of these is nonuniform color. Because fish-paste products are generally subjected to multi-stage heating in the course of processing, the sugar or the amino acid is partially eluted in the first heating, and the resulting product is apt to be nonuniformly browned in the second or third heating. Another problem in connection with the heating is that not only the surface but also the inside parts of the product are colored. For example, when canned fish-paste products are subjected to retort-heating, the product is browned as far as the center portion thereof, and its commercial value is markedly impaired.